Gabriel Yeranyan

Born in Constantinople. He was educated at the Mayr Varzharan (Mother School), as a pupil of the musicologist Aristakes Hovhannisyan. Besides the Armenian khaz notation he also learned European notation, and he carried out fruitful creative and teaching work. Together with his teacher Aris Hovhannisyan he published in 1857-58 the journal “Knar haykakan” (Armenian Lyre), which was the first musical periodical in Armenian life and in which national songs were written down in European notation. The periodical was short-lived. In 1861, together with one of his pupils, Nikoghayos Tashjian, he republished it under the name “Knar arevelyan” (Oriental Lyre), but it could not survive and was closed in 1862. As a music teacher he worked at the Armenian school of the Khasgyugh quarter and at the orphanage of the national hospital, educating many pupils. He wrote national and patriotic songs, such as the well-known “Kilikia” (Cilicia), “Hayastan, yerkir drakhtavayr” (Armenia, Land of Paradise), “Arik, Haykazunk” (Arise, Sons of Hayk), “Hay aprink, yeghbayrk” (Let Us Live as Armenians, Brothers) and others. He died in Constantinople.